5 Possible Outcomes for Judge Gorsuch's Confirmation Process

Unless you are a political junkie, the confirmation process for the Supreme Court is not exactly must-see TV, but the results will shape the courts for decades. Over the next two to three weeks, Judge Neil Gorsuch will field questions from both sides with most of the intensity predictably coming from the left. The good news is the left isn't likely to find many arrows to sling.

Gorsuch appears to be devoid of the proverbial skeleton in the closet that Democrats hope to find, making his confirmation a near certainty --- knock on wood. That said, there are several scenarios that could play out of the next several weeks. Here are the five most likely:

1| Democrats Roll Over

It only takes a simple majority for confirmation, meaning Gorsuch only needs 51 votes. Republicans own the majority of seats in the Senate with 52 and none are likely to vote "no." If a few Democrat votes are swayed his way, Gorsuch could be confirmed with a supermajority of 60 votes, making it impossible for Democrats to filibuster.

2| The Nuclear Option

Thanks to Harry Reid reinstating the parliamentary rule of the nuclear option in 2013, Republicans are able to invoke that rule and bypass the 60 vote threshold. If Republicans choose to implement the nuclear option, only a simple majority is needed and Gorsuch would be confirmed. Utilizing this option would almost certainly make for an all out war for the next nomination which could happen as early as this year.

3| The Two-Speech Rule

A Senate rule mandates the Senate stay in the same legislative day until filibustering senators give up on their efforts. This is essentially a way to tire out the filibuster and exhaust the objecting minority to run out the clock. Confirmation would only require the simple majority of 51 votes this way.

4| Punt

While highly unlikely, this would occur if, for whatever reason, President Trump withdraws the nomination. Whether he's expending too much political capital or some scandal were to explode, Trump could just punt on Gorsuch and go back to the drawing board.

5| Democrats Actually Like Gorsuch

It's no as farfetched as it might sound. Gorsuch is a very reasonable judge who was confirmed unanimously 10 years ago to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. If Republicans and Gorsuch sway a handful of Democrats, he could easily push through with a supermajority.

Analysis

From most reports, there's not much to object to when it comes to Judge Gorsuch --- even for Democrats. Don't get too excited just yet, though. Democrats will have to play the part of taking a stand and cast a few votes against him.

Don't expect Trump to punt, he hasn't seemed too concerned with a little opposition. When he chooses his guy, he tends to stand by him. Invoking the nuclear option isn't likely either, as it could have serious ramifications no one wants to deal with this early on in an administration.

Watch for enough Democrats to cave for a supermajority. Republicans have the upper hand and Democrats know it. Judge Gorsuch is a conservative's dream, but he's not really a liberal's worst nightmare either. As it stands now, we can look forward to hearing the name Justice Gorsuch for decades to come.

We've finally heard some news on the migrant caravan. Some of the migrants have given up and gone back home, but some are still there waiting at the border. A leader representing the group has decided to step forward, and he's made out a list of... demands. Remember when I said back in October that this caravan was originally formed as a Leftist act against the Honduran government by people with ties to Venezuela and Cuba? Well what do you know… wait until you hear who this guy is.

Alfonso Guerrero personally walked into the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico with a list of demands from the caravan. Get a load of this. The caravan is demanding that if they're not granted immediate asylum they want the following:

Fifty thousand dollars in cash for every caravan member (which would be a total of tens of millions).

The immediate removal of all U.S. economic and military assets in Honduras.

Failure to comply to these demands will result in the caravan continuing to try and penetrate the U.S. border.

I mean, if you're trying to appear like some grassroots movement for migrants that are just escaping the dangers of their own country, you might want to - oh I don't know - tone down the crazy Leftist freedom fighter schtick. I'm just saying. Demanding millions of dollars AND the removal of the U.S. military from Honduras kinda just screams, "Hey check me out. I'm a Marxist terrorist." It would have been basically the same thing if he just charged up to the embassy wearing a beret and shouted "Viva la Revolution!!" while firing off an RPG.

Well, it turns out this isn't the first time Mr Guerrero has tried to claim asylum. Back in 1987 he claimed asylum in Mexico after being suspected by the Honduran and U.S. government for - wait for it - left wing terrorism… Jeez, you know you really can't make this stuff up. This is INSANE. Here's the story…

This is ridiculous. Can we all now agree that this entire charade is a fraudulent scam?

In 1987 Honduras was ground zero for U.S. and Soviet proxy forces fighting the Cold War. The Contra rebels were actually based there, and leftists terrorists would sometimes carry out operations in the country in response. On August 8th a bomb was thrown into the China Palace restaurant, just a few miles from the U.S. military base in Honduras. Six American soldiers were injured in the blast. Alfonso Guerrero was the primary suspect. He escaped to Mexico and claimed asylum. The Reagan Administration charged the Mexican government for quote "harboring a terrorist" for granting Guerrero protection.

But all the caravan wants is a better life in the United States… oh and millions of dollars AND a list of political demands for their home country. This is ridiculous. Can we all now agree that this entire charade is a fraudulent scam? This is a Leftist political stunt. It has been since the very beginning.

Here's an incident that you won't hear about anywhere else. It doesn't fit the mainstream media's transgender narrative, their fairy tale of infinite genders, where any criticism is viewed as transphobic and taboo and certainly not something that the majority of Americans think or feel.

Last week, in West Point, Virginia, a high school French teacher named Peter Vlaming was fired after a five-and-a-half hour hearing that centered on his refusal to use a transgender student's specific gender pronouns. Vlaming said that doing so violated his religious beliefs.

Tolerance is a two-way street. Unfortunately, tolerance on the part of the school division has been noticeably absent. It chose to impose its own orthodoxy on Mr. Vlaming and fired him because he didn't relinquish his rights protected by the First Amendment.

School administrators fired Vlaming "due to this insubordination and repeated refusal to comply with directives made to him by multiple WPPS administrators."

The school justified the firing by pointing to a set of policies aimed at curbing misgendering of transgender students.

Vlaming's lawyer disputed this, saying that the policies include no such mention of transgenderism, adding that:

My client respects the rights of all students, including this student's rights; he simply asked that his rights be respected as well. Unfortunately, the school division refused to consider any solutions that would respect the freedoms of everyone involved.

There is a ray of hope in all of this, though. The students. A group of students from the school immediately staged a walkout in protest of Vlaming's firing.

One student told reporters:

I feel like everyone should have the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion as well.

Students lined up outside the school with signs that said, "Free Vlam." Another included a quote from Ben Shapiro: "Facts don't care about your feelings." Another read "You can't impose delusion onto us."

Whether it's a 'War on Christmas' or just progressivism run amok, the song 'Baby It's Cold Outside' has been firmly in the crosshairs this holiday season. Here are just a few of the headlines making the rounds:

The left might think they are woke and on the right side of history in the wake of the #MeToo movement — but how shocked do you think they'd be if they knew Glenn beat them to the punch over a decade ago? Don't believe me? Take a listen to this clip from our audio vault from 2008.

Christmas has arrived early for mainstream media. They have their first sentencing of a major player in President Trump's inner circle. Yesterday, Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced by a federal judge in Manhattan. How did it come to this and how did Cohen explain himself to the judge? We start there next…

President Trump's former attorney, 52-year-old Michael Cohen, is going to jail. Well, it will probably be one of those federal prison camps with a dorm that's more like a college campus. But he's going to be locked up. A federal judge sentenced him to three years in prison for financial crimes, and two months for lying to Congress. He also ordered Cohen to pay $2 million in financial penalties. The judge called Cohen's misdeeds a "veritable smorgasbord of criminal conduct."

As a lawyer, Mr. Cohen should have known better. While Mr. Cohen is taking steps to mitigate his criminal conduct by pleading guilty and volunteering useful information to prosecutors, that does not wipe the slate clean.

Cohen pled guilty in August to eight criminal charges in two different cases. One brought by special counsel Robert Muller for Cohen's lying to Congress about a potential Trump Tower project in Moscow. The second was for bank-fraud, tax, and campaign finance violations brought by federal prosecutors in New York.

President Trump said recently that Cohen has simply been lying to get a reduced sentence for crimes that have nothing to do with him. Cohen was very emotional as he apologized to the judge, saying:

It was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man that led me to choose a path of darkness over light. Time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than to listen to my own inner voice and my moral compass.

The left thinks that Cohen's sentencing marks the beginning of the end for Trump's presidency. They may be ultimately disappointed in that regard. But this does intensify the long national nightmare of the Muller investigation that seems to have no end in sight.